Exodus

This is the first publication of "Exodus" as a book. The documentary-style show consisting of these informally told stories was staged in 2022 at Open Space - Centre for Visual and performing arts by director Mikheil Charkviani. None of the performances in the show, which took place over 10 days, have been performed since. The project included close to 100 stories, more than 40 of which have been included in this book. These personal stories, told by Georgian nationals, deal with the pivotal social, political, and cultural phenomena of the 1990s to 2000s, both within the country and outside it, phenomena that shaped modern Georgia as a nation in important ways. The events described in this book, events which often manifested as trauma and which had lasting effects across generations, describe not only specific people and their experiences but also the country's recent past and present. Through these texts, the reader will come to know such crucial episodes in Georgian history as April 9, 1989, and April 9, 1991; the War in Abkhazia, the Civil War, and the August War; the Rose Revolution of 2003; the demonstrations broken up on May 26 and July 5. The reader will share in the experiences of emigration, the violation of workers' rights, becoming a refugee in one's own country, the pain of losing others and of losing oneself. Exodus is a broken narrative, at times fragmentary, at times lacking a conclusion, oftentimes distressing, but the reader will find that the theme that runs most prominently through this anthology of documentary prose is that of faith in the future.